BATON ROUGE mdash; Louisiana lawmakers concluded the 2026 Regular Legislative Session after passing a $47 billion budget, which includes pay raises for state employees.The budget is described as a "stand-still" spending plan, meaning it stays mostly flat compared to previous years.Rep. Jack McFarla nd, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, called it "another successful budget.The pay raises cover state employees, judges, firefighters and the Department of Corrections."That's been a very big topic," McFarland said."For the most part, the budget is pretty flat,rdquo; said Steven Procopio, president of the Public Affairs Research Council.One notable absence from the budget is an additional $44 million for LA GATOR, the governor's school choice voucher program that pays for public school students to attend private schools."Which was a point of contention back and forth," Procopio said.McFarland says legislators used money from the school choice voucher program to close a projected $113 million budget shortfall."It was something that had been filed for the first time, and if you'll notice, those were the things that we targeted," McFarland said.Not everyone is satisfied with the final numbers.Dafnee Chatman, with the Save the Children Action Network, says the budget falls short for early childhood education.The budget sets aside $78 million for early childhood education. Her organization asked for $87 million."This year, we did not get what we asked for," Chatman said.She says 13,000 children are still on a waiting list for one of Louisiana's early learning centers."We don't want to leave any kids behind," she said.The legislature also allocated approximately $800 million to fund infrastructure improvement projects.Permalink| Comments ...read more read less